Part of the issue for Kef is simply brand proliferation. I owned the Kef Corelli in/around 1975. Kef, Celestion, and (then) Bowers & Wilkins were about the only Brit high end monitors widely available. Other highly regarded (non-Brit) imported speakers were fairly rare. US designs usually sounded quite different. If limited bass, mid-range centric accuracy was the tree you wanted to bark up, Kef was automatically on your short list.
When a million new brands came along, the company failed to maintain "share of mind" in an increasingly crowded marketplace. To some degree, it was the marketing types that screwed up, but that wasn't the whole story. In my experience the products have always been pretty good, but when the competition got a lot stiffer, they weren't quite good enough/distinctive enough to keep the market's attention.
To be fair, it's tough for any business to distinguish itself longterm in a rapidly evolving marketplace full of good, highly diverse choices. Maybe B&W is the exception, and Kef more the rule. I can't think of too many other brands (although there are a few) that have stayed on top since that time.
Marty
When a million new brands came along, the company failed to maintain "share of mind" in an increasingly crowded marketplace. To some degree, it was the marketing types that screwed up, but that wasn't the whole story. In my experience the products have always been pretty good, but when the competition got a lot stiffer, they weren't quite good enough/distinctive enough to keep the market's attention.
To be fair, it's tough for any business to distinguish itself longterm in a rapidly evolving marketplace full of good, highly diverse choices. Maybe B&W is the exception, and Kef more the rule. I can't think of too many other brands (although there are a few) that have stayed on top since that time.
Marty